The Day Aperture Fell
by komodo-Dags
Summary: Take you're Daughter to Work Day is one most memorable...for those who live to experience it. One-shot with android/wheatley. Also, there are a bunch of wheatley's exhisting here, so don't be confused.


Just as it had been planned, Take Your Daughter to Work Day was accurately on track.

Proud scientists watched the girl's pathetic yet informative attempts to create a potato battery, an activity which seemed simple enough upon hearing, but not quite so in doing.

Wires stuck out at awkward angles in the plants, creating seeming arms and legs. None were exactly alike, though. There was one wrapped like a mummy in stabilizing material, one that had been diced for hopefully a better result (There wasn't), and even one in a pot of dirt. Frustrated with the darn thing, a blonde had tried the operation on a lemon. A sharp eye was kept on her by the wary men.

Watching from a little ways above, and enjoying himself immensely, was one of the scientist's older productions, who had been entitled with the code-name WU-068, but had taken up the nick-name 'Gizmo'. A shorter fellow with bright orange hair that puffed out and over his squat face, he considered himself barely a spectator and more of a participant of this grand event. After all, how many AIs could say that they had witnessed the day that The Queen was to be activated? Well, he could add himself to the list!

Swinging his legs mildly, he leaned forward as the small humans were rounded out of the room by the bigger ones. He gently lowered himself to the ground to follow them and passed the isles of tortured tubers, glancing at them with interest, but he kept himself at a steady pace. He didn't want to miss what was coming next.

They were headed to the central chamber, where GlaDos was, at this moment, being hooked up and readied for activation. Of course, this wasn't the first time she had been activated. She had been tested by the humans many times before as had they tried to get her just right, mainly because of the fact that she kept trying to kill them. But it was all worth it, and they were sure that it would be in the end, so thus they had always desperately tried to mellow her. Heck, even the mindset of a certain Mrs. Caroline Johnson had been not-so-willingly donated into this project. This AI was Aperture's pride and joy.

The girls 'oooh'd' and 'awww'd' at the grand set-up, all for one of the most important days in science history, not to mention also in honor of the deceased Mr. Cave, the previous great, but sadly wacko, top man.

All eyes were not only drawn to the large 'thing' hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room, but also the impressive, delicious cake just below, a single candle lit atop its head, casting a dim glow on the white sprinkles in the shady room.

Even Gizmo, who literally lived in Aperture and was used to all of its stunts, was a little awed himself over the layout. It all seemed so important and wonderful, so special. It was a moment that he hoped he would never forget, since he tended to have a bad memory.

He snuck in through the side and kept place behind some men who had formed a row. His eyes adjusted to the light briefly before he watched as the girls were parked to one side facing the massive machine.

A gentleman with a trailing lab coat stepped forward and began a slow, quite frankly boring speech on the grueling efforts that had been included on Aperture's part to get to this moment, with about as much enthrallment as a turtle.

Gizmo didn't hear a word. He didn't even bother, really. His mind was racing in excitement.

_Oh, man! This is gonna change everythin'! A queen, a genuine queen, and I'm the only AI to see this besides herself! Oh, the others said that I wouldn't be able to see it, none of us would, but just lookit me NOW! Useless, my foot! When I get back, they'll wanna hear everythin' about it, bless their old hearts!_

Of course, he was thinking about some older Wheatley Units that had been around since before even his time. They saw absolutely nothing but the negative side of life, and made sure that everyone else knew as well. They also happened to be very curious, but being that they were so rickety, they would have been discovered for sure had they come.

But he was small and knew all the tricks. Most of the laboratory workers were tall, and didn't care to look down unless something was eating away at their legs, as they were very prideful.

His heart raced as the speech came to a drawling close, and some workers set to beginning the power up. He tried to soak up every detail, every single second of it. When he was old and decrepit, he wanted to be no. 1. Liked, and no. 2. Popular, and a story like this should just about fit the bill.

Along with the eager girls, he tipped himself forward with bulging eyes as the great machine lurched, and began to gradually pull itself up. Giving a last swing, a yellow eye suddenly snapped open, and the head turned, scoping out the environment.

She seemed to be in no surprise to see her audience, almost as if she had been expecting it.

A long applause echoed through-out as the spectators, not including the girls, realized that all of this time working-the years spent away from their families- had come all the way down to this. They had accomplished their mission that most of their fore-fathers had begun and that they had spent most of their lives on.

Then, she spoke, "Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment center. We are pleased to allow your enjoyment of the event of Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Her voice was deep, yet smooth. Strangely creepy.

A few scientists began to shake hands and congratulate each other excitedly, having their expectations confirmed, and a quiet chatter filled the gap between GlaDos' speech.

"However," Her tone had changed, suddenly dark and mysterious, causing every head that had been turned to sharply twist back to her, "I am sorry to inform all of you that your stay is not permanent. Or acceptable."

Gizmo had already been turning towards the nearest (and only) entrance and exit in the room. He had been merely making sure that it still existed. Not that he had really been expecting anything to happen; just an unexplainable chill had run up through his bones and had pointed him the direction.

But just as his eyes had fallen on them, they slammed shut, ringing through the room as many other things did as well. Up ahead, a few panels opened, revealing large tubes.

Oh, but the panic didn't start there. It started when the only voice in the room shouted out, "THE DEACTIVATION AREA IS LOCKED!?"

That's when the screams began, along with the thundering footsteps as hundreds of panicking people began scrambling either which way. It was a complete madhouse as the steady hiss of the neurotoxin rose above the noise.

Of course, Gizmo had run as well, finding himself being knocked around by everyone else. He quickly picked himself up off the floor just to be stomped on again by a pair of boots and his head, at the same moment, clashed with a child's leg, which hurt him more.

He yelped and crawled forward; beginning to feel like he was going to be trampled to death as more and more bruises and cuts graced him. However, those things barely mattered at all to him; on his mind was what was on everyone else's: _**SURVIVE.**_

And that one thought can make you do anything.

He pushed and shoved his way through the growing stampede and gasped when a dying man fell right in front of him. Immediately, he could feel the horror rising in his throat, because the face was recognizable. Soft and rounded, with a flushed tint that read the poisoning of the neurotoxin, the badge tag askew on his front reading, "Jonathan Helwig".

"_Oh, gosh, please, no!"_ His words choked as he grasped the coat of his creator. The panic instantly filling his eyes with tears that dripped off the end of his nose and into the hair of the only human that he had ever even liked.

Confusion blurred his gaze as he began to notice more and more humans dropping to the floor, the ones who were still up starting to slow. The screams were becoming less desperate, and more despairing. He even felt a slight cough forming, telling him that he was at the beginning to be one of them.

He shakily got to his feet and raced blindly towards the wall. A dim thought had reached his confused mind. Hands landing on the cold surface, he felt along until they reached a sharp, flat piece. An air vent. With more strength than he had ever possessed, he wrenched it off of its hinges and pulled his figure through and down the vent.

His breath was heavy and uneven, and a sharp pain shot through his side at every move he made, but he forced himself forward, determined to make it. He had come so far…

Then he noticed that all was silent. He was alone and alive. It was finished.

Carefully, gently, he curled himself up so that his knees touched his forehead and he forced his tears into them.

His head began to throb and his body twitched slightly with all of the new injuries. Yet, he knew that he would be forced to tell this story to the other WU when they found him, they would find a way to get it out of him.

He wanted to forget this. Every, single moment of it.


End file.
